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The two half-castes who aided Reischek have been identified as John Ormsby and Tommy Green
(Te Puaha). 146 However, in a draft of a letter to Hochstetter on 5 January 1883, which appears in
his original diaries, Reischek also reveals the involvement of a chief, as well as additional
information on his transportation of the corpses:
Die Mumien sind in sitzender Stehlung, ich bewegte 2 half casts und einen Maori chief durch gute
Bezahlung mir zu helfen. wir mussten es geheim halten wegen der Eingeborenen und ich hielt es
geheim, Sie sind der erste welchen ich meine Forschung veröffentliche, es nahm uns 14 Nächte
before ich die Mumien in einem sicheren Ort brachte, leider lit es ein wenig durch Nässe da es die
ganze Zeit regnete wo wir auf dem Wege wahren und bei Tage mussten wir die Mumien in
Sümpfen verbergen um keinen Verdruss zu erwecken, ich preparierte die Mumien, dann samelte
ich meine bereits vollständige Samlung von Maori Waffen, Kleidern, Schnitzereien, Spielzeuge,
Nahrungsmittel […]. 147
While it is presumed he also acquired the services of the local chief, Wiremu Kumete Te
Whitiora, 148 the unknown chief mentioned above is not the one and the same, as the latter is
unnamed and needed to be induced through money to help, which either suggests he was aware of
the contents of the two bundles or else was simply reluctant to help him in the first place. King
takes the view that the remains of Ngati Te Wehi were of no real concern to local Hauturu people
so that the sacrilege was ultimately overlooked, 149 while Aubin believes the bodies were “tapu
and greatly respected, but had nothing of the sacred and revered character of the repository of
their own dead not too far away” due to the belief that the “tribe exists for the tribe alone, and
disrespect shown to the relics of another people was not really the heinous crime it would be
considered in the modern concept of one Maori people”. 150
One of the most criticised aspects of Reischek’s perception of the Maori is his portrayal of
the King Country, in which Michael King has asserted that the explorer’s observations “are to be
distrusted and disregarded almost in their entirety”. 151 What has of course been overlooked here
is the role of Reischek’s son. As it was Reischek junior’s intention in Sterbende Welt to take the
reader “immer weiter weg von Europas Zivilisation Schritt für Schritt […] in die stillen
146
King, Collector, 99f.
147
Cited in: Kolig, Umstrittene Würde, 107.
148
See King, Collector, 70. His name has also been written as Whitiora Te Kumete.
149
Ibid., 100f.
150
Aubin, “The lost mummies of Hautapu”, 25.
151
King, Collector, 63.
256